Cheatham County Jailer Charged With Assault In Taser Case

ASHLAND CITY, TN — A grand jury indicted a Cheatham County jailer on charges of assault and official misconduct connected to the use of a Taser on a restrained inmate in the county jail, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday.

The TBI began investigating Mark Bryant, 39, of Clarksville, after a video recording of the November 2016 incident emerged following the filing of a federal lawsuit against Bryant and two other Cheatham County sheriff's deputies.

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The TBI says its investigation revealed corrections officers removed Jordan Norris, 18, from his booking cell after he became violent toward himself and other inmates. While being restrained in the jail’s restraint chair, Norris was able to loosen one arm, after which the investigation revealed Bryant used a stun gun on the inmate at least four times, one instance of which lasted approximately 25 seconds, according to the bureau.

According to the lawsuit filed in July, while the chair was restraining Norris's arms, waist, chest and legs, one deputy — identified in the suit as Josh Marriott — applied "pressure point techniques" and two others — Jeff Key and Bryant — held his right arm against the chair. The lawsuit says Bryant then tased Norris for 50 seconds while he was restrained, while saying “I’ll keep on doing that until I run out of batteries,” according to the suit.

An overhead camera and a camera mounted on the taser itself recorded the encounter (caution: the video may be disturbing to some viewers; the video is mislabeled as being recorded in Texas)

On the recording, a person can be heard laughing and saying "“G------ that kid is being lit up!” and Bryant can be heard telling a restrained Norris to stop resisting.

The taser was applied to Norris on at least three more occasions over the next hour before he was taken to the hospital in a patrol car before being transferred to a mental-health facility, where he remained until he returned to the jail 10 days later.

On November 5, Sheriff Mike Breedlove posted on the department's Facebook page that Norris was "shocked with awe" and "peed a little bit."

Breedlove told News Channel 5 the Facebook page is meant to provide humorous takes on the week's arrests and his message was not intended as a taunt of Norris.

Though he declined an on-camera interview with the station, he said Norris was "strong and out of control" and that, following procedure, his deputies used "dry stunning" — a Taser technique that uses lower voltage and doesn't employ the device's prongs.

Initially, Breedlove said that Norris was "flinching" and not fully restrained, but later, after watching the full video, placed the deputies on administrative leave and requested an investigation by the district-attorney and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Bryant was booked into the Cheatham County jail after the grand jury returned the true bill and was being held on a $75,000 bond.

Image via TBI